Don’t you love when things just fall into place, as if by magic? I do.
I have found that most of what I have pushed and pulled to make happen rarely was as sweet as the things that have enchanted, serendipitous beginnings. Yet, I also have suspected that I co-create these moments of serendipity since they seem to happen frequently when I am curious and looking for treasures in the mundane moments of life; and they seem to disappear when I am anxious and stressed.
In a New York Times article I recently read, Pagan Kennedy says the word serendipity originally did connote action on our part, not some good fortune or luck. It originated from a Persian fairy tale about three princess from the Isle of Serendip who had keen skills of observation allowing them to discover things they were not looking for but were present on their travels.
Isn’t that exactly how serendipity works? You are looking for something in your wallet when you see a card from someone you intended to call but forgot. If you pick up on the clue and make the call right then you find some enchanted outcome you did not expect but nevertheless are now overjoyed by.
The keys to cultivating serendipity is in your observing the small cues and then acting on them!
It is a two part process–observe and act. If you are stressed about other things you are not likely to notice the card at all and just push it aside in pursuit of your original quest. If you are in a hurry you might notice, but maybe only make a mental note to make the call later rather than do it now. Either way, the moment will be lost.
According to the NYT article Dr. Erdelez studied 100 people in the 1990’s “to find out how they created their own serendipity, or failed to do so.”
She categorized her subjects into three groups: 1) those that stayed focused on tasks and to-do lists when searching for something, 2) those that occasionally “wandered off into the margins” and had infrequent moments of serendipity, and 3) those she called “super-encounterers.” These were people who expected magic and found it because they looked for “happy surprises” in odd places.
If serendipity is a skill we can cultivate, I want to become a student of it today and increase the enchanted encounters in my life. How about you? Three things seem necessary.
Curiosity
Observation
Action
I am going to bring more curiosity to my life, looking in the oddest places for “happy surprises” and expecting to find them. And when I do, I will act. Sounds like a great adventure!
